Congress says ease of doing business is only for creamy layer of businesses

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) The Congress on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “patting himself in the back” over the World Bank report on India’s ease of doing business, saying it was only for the “creamy layer of businesses” and that the Prime Minister was “not well-informed about its facts”.

The party said that Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should also hold a press conference on India’s slide in the global hunger index.

Prime Minister Modi on Saturday attacked the Congress for questioning the World Bank Report on ease of doing business in India and said with GST and other reforms, its report next year would show further improvement in ranking.

“I don’t know whether the Prime Minister is informed about all the facts or not. I don’t think he is aware of the concept of ease of doing business.

“Prior to 2015, there was only one city in every country that was taken into account and that was Mumbai (for the World Bank Report). Now, in 2015, they changed it to two cities. So, Mumbai and Delhi are the two cities for business in India,” said Congress leader Kapil Sibal.

“The businesses don’t take place only in these two cities of the country. The PM has forgotten that there are crores who do small businesses in other cities of the country. Is the PM thinking about them – the informal sector, small traders and factories,” he added.

Sibal said: “He is the Prime Minister of the country and all the business communities, and not just a handful of them. This is called creamy layer of businesses.

“He is not the Prime Minister of the creamy layer of businesses who are located at the top end of the pyramid in Delhi and Mumbai,” he added.

Sibal said the two factors taken into consideration for the report were e-filing, which he said was started by the UPA government, and Insolvency Act which was also conceived by the Congress-led UPA.

“Now the World Bank does not consider the impact of all this. So, I do not know why the Prime Minister is patting himself on the back. Does he realise that our Health Index has gone down from 87 to 108. Why does not he (Modi) or Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) do a press conference on that?” Sibal asked.

“The global Hunger Index in India is worse than most countries of the world. Why does the Finance Minister not do a press conference on that?” he asked.